Down 34 points late in the third quarter to the Knicks, Drake Powell still played like it mattered. The Nets rookie squared up 6-7 Guerschon Yabusele, strung together a slick combo-cross step back, and rose for a jumper as Spike Lee leaned forward courtside, talking in his ear the entire time.

Powell buried the jumper, one of his career-best three from deep, then turned toward the courtside icon. As he drifted back on defense, he let Lee hear it, punctuating the exchange with a confident 3-point salute. It was the kind of emotion Brooklyn has been searching for, a glimpse of fight from a young player refusing to let the moment or the score quiet him.

“I’ll never be the first one to talk to somebody,” Powell said. “But like, if you talk to me, just in the flow of the game, it is what it

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